ALVA, Okla. – The Northwestern Oklahoma State baseball team defeated East Central, 11-5, on Friday evening. The win moves the Rangers to 7-11 on the season and 1-6 in Great American Conference play.
The Rangers got off to a quick start, as
Alex Dabrowski reached on an error and stole second to immediately put a runner in scoring position.
Blake Mattern singled to left field to get the first hit of the game, and Dabrowski scored on a balk to put Northwestern on the board.
Cole Barton brought home another run by ripping a single to right field to bring Mattern home and give the Rangers a two-run advantage through one inning.
Northwestern tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the second with
Tyler Hogan singling, moving the second on a ground out, and moving to third on a failed pickoff attempt before coming home from Dabrowski reaching on another error. Dabrowski stole second for his second stolen base of the game, and came home after
Amari Goodfellow reached on the third Tiger error of the game to put Northwestern up 4-0 at the end of the second.
East Central plated a run in the top of the third, but the Rangers countered back with
Amari Goodfellow doubling to left field and
Joel Lindahl singling to center field to move the lead back up to four.
Chase Gordon slammed a single up the middle before
Jailon Goodfellow blasted a three-run bomb to center to extend the Ranger lead to 8-1. Northwestern kept pouring on runs, as Hogan reached on an error while Garrett Thomas singled to right field to move the lead to 9-1 at the end of the fourth inning.
The Tigers added runs in the fifth and seventh to cut the lead down to six, and added on another run in the top of the eighth to cut the lead to 9-4. East Central tried to keep its rally going by loading the bases, but
Elias Herrera helped end the threat to keep the Ranger lead at five. Northwestern's bats came back to life in the bottom of the eighth, as Barton slapped a single to left field and Gordon singled to right field before Hogan blasted a triple down the right field line to push the Ranger lead to 11-4. The Tigers added another run in the top of the ninth, but it was not enough as the Rangers beat East Central, 11-5.
Hogan led the Rangers in hits in three, while
Jailon Goodfellow led in RBI with three.
Will Kates led in strikeouts with seven in six innings of work and only allowed two runs for his first win of the season.
The Rangers will be back in action tomorrow to wrap up the series against East Central with a doubleheader at Myers Stadium, with the first pitch at 1 p.m.
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